Why We've Trusted Jet Stream PBS Prep & Sealant on De-Ice Boots for Almost 20 Years
The article below was written by our friend Brett Berry, CEO of Shiny Jets in San Diego, California. We thank him for sharing his great testimony with us!
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Why We've Trusted Jet Stream PBS Prep & Sealant on De-Ice Boots for Almost 20 Years
If you walk onto any ramp in the country and ask a seasoned turboprop owner what they use on their de-ice boots, the same three letters come up more often than anything else: PBS. Jet Stream Aviation Products' PBS Prep and PBS Boot Sealant have been the quiet standard on business aircraft since the mid-1990s, and at Shiny Jets we've been applying them professionally for nearly two decades — on King Airs, Citations, Pilatus PC-12s, Cheyennes, Conquests, Caravans, MU-2s, and just about every other pneumatic-boot-equipped aircraft you can name.
In all that time, across thousands of applications, we've had zero incidents. No boot failures attributable to the product. No premature degradation. No warranty headaches. Just consistently clean, black, glossy leading edges that look as sharp on year eight as they did the day the aircraft rolled off the paint shop.
That track record is why PBS is one of the core de-ice boot systems we teach in every Shiny Jets aircraft detailing training.
What Pneumatic De-Ice Boots Actually Are (and Why They Need Care)
Before we get into product, it's worth a quick refresher. Pneumatic de-ice boots are flexible rubber bladders bonded to the leading edges of wings, stabilizers, and sometimes engine inlets. When ice accumulates in flight, pilots cycle the boots — they inflate with bleed air, crack the ice, then deflate and let the airstream carry the pieces away.
They are safety-of-flight components. And because they are made of elastomeric rubber sitting out in UV, ozone, jet exhaust, hydraulic mist, bug strikes, and every other insult the environment throws at them, they degrade fast if you ignore them. Dry rot, chalking, micro-cracking, and surface hardening all reduce the boot's ability to flex cleanly through an inflate/deflate cycle — and a boot that won't flex cleanly is a boot that won't shed ice properly.
This is why the major airframe and boot OEMs (Collins/Goodrich, for example) all call for regular cleaning and treatment. The question isn't whether to treat de-ice boots. It's what with.
The Jet Stream PBS System: How It Actually Works
PBS is a two-part system, and the order matters.
PBS Prep is a cleaner and stripper. It lifts off old boot treatments, oxidized residue, oily film, bug guts, and the chalky surface layer that builds up over time. If you skip this step and just lay sealant over old sealant, you trap contaminants underneath and the new coating won't bond properly — you get dulling, streaking, and a much shorter service interval.
PBS Boot Sealant is the protective coating. It dries quickly to a deep, high-gloss black finish and shields the rubber against UV, weather, and general wear. Unlike oil-based treatments, it doesn't fly off in streaks down the top of the wing in flight — which is both an aesthetic win and a maintenance win, because those streaks are a pain to polish out of paint.
The manufacturer recommends roughly a 2:1 ratio of Prep to Sealant for a reason: properly cleaned boots drink up more Prep than Sealant, and shortcutting the Prep step is the single most common mistake we see in the field. For context, Jet Stream's published guidance is that one quart of Sealant paired with two quarts of Prep can treat a Citation or King Air roughly 14 times — so the per-application cost is genuinely low for the result you get.
Our Two-Decade Track Record
We've been using PBS since before Shiny Jets was Shiny Jets. I've personally applied it to hundreds of turboprops and light jets going back to the mid-2000s, and the team has continued that work through today. In that entire stretch:
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No boot failures traceable to the treatment.
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No adhesion issues between coats when the Prep step is done correctly.
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No complaints from A&Ps or DOMs about interference with boot inspection, bonding, or function.
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Consistently 6–12 months of high-gloss protection per application under typical operating conditions, depending on hangar vs. ramp storage and climate.
That's not a marketing claim — that's what nearly 20 years of hands-on application looks like.
Why PBS Is in Our Shiny Jets Training Curriculum
When we built the Shiny Jets detailing training programs, we had a rule: we only teach products we've personally run for years on customer aircraft. PBS made the cut on the first pass. Here's what we drill students on:
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Strip before you seal. Students learn to saturate boots with PBS Prep, let it dwell, and mechanically work the surface with a scrub sponge until the rag comes off clean. Multiple passes on neglected boots are normal and expected.
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Rinse and verify. Prep residue has to come off before sealant goes on. We check for water-break to confirm the surface is clean.
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Thin coats, multiple passes. One thick coat of sealant is worse than three thin ones. Thin coats flash off, bond correctly, and stack into a deeper gloss without puddling at panel gaps or rivet lines.
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Microfiber applicators. The PBS kit ships with reusable microfiber pads for exactly this reason. (A quick note on our standard: where general guidance says "soft cotton terry," we've had better consistency and lower lint transfer on black rubber using microfiber, which is also what the manufacturer's own kit supplies.)
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Work cool, out of direct sun. Sealant flashes too fast in high-sun, high-heat conditions and you'll see streaking. Shade or early morning. Every time.
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Protect adjacent paint. Masking the paint edge above the boot is five extra minutes that saves an hour of correction work later.
Students leave our Dominate immersive at Chino with hands-on reps applying PBS to real aircraft under supervision — which is how you actually learn this, not by watching a YouTube video.
Responsible Application: Always Check Your Manual
One note we include in every training session: always consult your specific aircraft maintenance manual and de-ice boot manufacturer guidance before applying any treatment. Different boot manufacturers have different approved treatment lists, and operators should verify compatibility with their airframe and boot OEM documentation. PBS has an extensive field history across the fleet, but the final call on any chemical going on a flight-critical component rests with the operator, their A&P, and their maintenance program.
That's the honest version. It's also the professional version — which is exactly the standard we hold our detailers to.
The Bottom Line
Jet Stream PBS Prep and Boot Sealant isn't flashy. It doesn't have a marketing team or influencer campaign behind it. What it has is a 30-year track record across general aviation and business aviation, a deep-gloss finish that holds up, and a simple two-step process that — done correctly — delivers the same result every single time.
That's why it's been in our kit for almost two decades. That's why it's in our training curriculum. And that's why we still reach for it on the aircraft that matter most to us.
Want to learn the full Shiny Jets de-ice boot process hands-on? Our three-day Dominate immersive at Chino, California covers boots, brightwork, paint correction, ceramic, transparencies, landing gear, and full interior — capped at 12 students per session. Apply to the next cohort →